A refinery in La Mède, France operated by oil giant Total Photo: Balint Porneczi/Bloomberg NewsFrance’s Total SA, TOT 0.53% one of the world’s largest oil companies, sent its top executives to Silicon Valley last summer, where they met with tech investors and futurists. For decades, Total and other large oil companies have employed a model pioneered by John D. Rockefeller over a century ago. “Oil companies like to talk about themselves as energy companies, but they are not energy companies. Like its fellow Western oil companies, Total had large exploration, refining and chemical divisions. Now that Total controls companies that generate, store and sell electricity, Mr. Pouyanné is trying to figure out how to fit the pieces together.

Source: Wall Street Journal June 13, 2017 15:05 UTC